When we are children we
think that when we grow up we can do what we want. Once we get here we realize
of course that it isn’t so, sometimes it takes a few wrong turns to find the
right one in life when we are doing what we
want.
“Brethren and fathers, hear my defense
before you now.” And when they
heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept all the more
silent.
Then he said: “I am indeed a
Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of
Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was
zealous toward God as you all are today. I persecuted
this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, as also the
high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I
also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains
even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.”
“Now it
happened, as I journeyed and came near
He grew up thinking he was doing the right thing, doing what he
wanted to do to please God even; but he was wrong and full of selfish gain. He
began to kill off those whom he thought were against God, and Rome
God saw this man’s heart, I believe, and chose to take away his
human vision so that he could see spiritually. Once this happened Saul, whom we
know as Paul the Apostle of Christ, became one of the most used by God men in
the Word of God.
Sometimes we look at things thinking we are doing the right thing, or what
we think is right in our eyes; we have decided that we have good intentions a
so we run with it, but God has a different plan for us. When this is the case
we need to stop doing whatever we think is right and stop to ask His direction
to be made clear because if we don’t we too may become ‘blinded by the Light’
in order to see what His plan is.
I don’t know about you but I truly hate it when that happens!
When we are going along at a swift pace adding things to our list
of to do’s because we think we are doing what ‘we should do’ and suddenly we
are hit with the reality of our humanness; we have to stop trying to be God and
make choices that are not for us to make. We can’t fix every thing or everyone
around us; only God can. I don’t care how much we claim we are putting our
trust in God and doing the work He would have us do if it is not His plan it
will fail.
To be honest with oneself is the first step to fixing the problem
we create when we go against what God’s plan is because we think we know the
thing to do. Often it’s just because we
think we are capable to help someone with a problem, but God had another
person or place for that need to be filled through. We mean well but it’s not
where we were supposed to be.
So how do we know?
We can look for signs and wonders. The people in the Bible did
this a lot. They would ask God to show them things, which would prove it was
Him, a fleece prayer they call that thanks to Gideon. (Judges 6)
Or we can pray asking God to take away the person from the picture
even, and send someone else to come in to help Esther helped in this type of
prayer with the would be killer of God’s people. (The book of Esther)
Whatever we do to decide, if its right or wrong, we have to walk
in our decision. If we decided that things need to stop, then we need to accept
our failures and not try to make it work any more, but let God provide the
answer. When we keep walking where we know God has told us not to go then we
are disobeying Him; things will start getting rough if we are disobeying God.
The Children of Israel had to wander in the dessert for 40 years
because of their disbelief, and disobedience. I don’t know about you but I want
to do what God wants not just what I think is the right thing to do. I only
trust God to direct my path because Teresa trips a lot!
Things that I trip on are pride, ignoring the signs I am given,
ignoring truthful statements, and physical things that slow me down. Sometimes
God will use situations to bring out the things that are hindering us from
obeying His Word and following what He tells us to do. Other times we try to twist the word to meet
what we want, Saul tried to use God as an excuse to try to wipe out the
Christians of his day. Jesus stopped him in his tracks with blindness.
I don’t want a physical problem to emphasize God’s point to me, do
you?
Dear Heavenly Father, write the words clear to us today. Help us
to get the job done that You want us to do but not to accept things you do not
plan for us to walk in. Let it truly be said that ‘our steps are ordered of the
Lord’ and let us walk only in them. In Jesus name, amen.
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